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GLOD: Political Theater as a Civil Right – Zoukak Theater, Lebanon

Date and time: Monday, July 20, 2020, 8 pm Beirut Time (UTC+3)

Register here [1].

GLOD

Romanian noun (from the Hungarian galád or the Russian глуда (gluda))

Wet earth (soaked by rainwater or melted snow) / Mud / Clay

Heavens is a play by Zoukak Theater Company, performed by a chorus of three women, tackling the subject of collective and individual memory of the Lebanese civil war. The play revisits themes such as Lebanon’s missing and forcibly disappeared and the general amnesty law of 1991, as the three women delve into their memories to give us a glimpse of how it was like to grow up as a girl/woman in war-torn Beirut.

Heavens closes the chapter of historical research that Zoukak started in 2012 with Perform-Autopsy. Through this research, we gained insight into the private-public relationship with history. It revealed our incomplete historical empire: the curse of repetition and echoes, our fragile reality and selves, the breath-constricting anxiety when we attempt to bury the rubble of the past in denial and reconstruction, the fear, hatred and self-loathing at the thought of our murderers and reality silencers – and our victims, anxiousness over our struggles, actions and betrayals, nostalgia that sinks us in past events somehow linked to us.

The performance is in Arabic with English subtitles

Post-show discussion between Junaid Sarieddeen and Maya Zbib of Zoukak Theater, Chris Thorpe and contributions from Legal Agenda via pre-recorded material.

Register to receive instructions on how to view and submit questions to the panel.

#GlodSessions

Hosted by Howlround Theater Commons | Coordinated by BÉZNĂ Theater

Credits:

Heavens was performed for the first time in 2014 at Zoukak Studio. It was later performed more than 20 times in Lebanon and in 2016 in India. Directed by Junaid Sariedden and Omar Abi Azar, performed by Lamia Abi Azar, Danya Hammoud and Maya Zbib, devised and written collectively with the participation of Hashem Adnan. The group collaborated with Abraham Zeitoun on Scenography and Rayya Morcos on costume design, as well as Maya Chami on poster design.

This audio version of Heavens was recorded by Jawad Chaaban a One Hertz Studio

A British Romanian theater company making work that investigates societal inequalities & confronts institutional & normalized violences. Pivotal to our work are close collaborations with activists & academics during field research, inclusion of communities in our process & emancipatory actions to enact lasting change. www.beznatheatre.org [4]

To support BÉZNĂ Theater please consider donating here [5].